Carbonated water bottle filler



Dec. 19, 1939.

R. J. HEI BERG CARBONATED WATER Y BOTTLE FILLER F'iled March 9, 1938 3110mm Robert J. H61 berg Patented Dec. 19, 1939 UNITED Robert J. Helberg, Seattle, Wash., assignor to Sy-fil Corporation, Seattle, Wash., a corporation of Washington Application March 9, 1938, Serial No. 194,961

14 Claims.

The present invention is an improvement upon the invention disclosed in the p'atentto R. J. Dowling and C. D. Davidson No. 2,115,013, issued April 26, 1938.

As it was in, connection with that invention, it is an object of the present invention to devise a simple, convenient and relatively inexpensive device whereby the normal type of carbonated water bottle may be refilled and recharged with fluid under pressure, to the end that there may be made available to hotels, clubs, restaurants, bars, and in general to users of such. water in quantity, a machine whereby they may recharge such bottles from time to time with convenience and dispatch, andat minimum cost.

The invention in its previous form was subject to the drawback that while the bottle, during charging, was covered by a cage, the purpose of which was to prevent injury to those near by in case the bottle should burst, there was no means to lock the cage in position, and more especially to insure that it was locked before the bottle could be charged, and hence there were occasions when a bottle would burst and the force of its explosion would blow the cage away from the bottle which it was supposed to protect, with the result that particles of glass would be projected outwardly from the bottle, to the possible injury of persons near by. It is, therefore, one of the objects of the present invention to provide a cage for such a bottle which is securely locked in protective position about the bottle, and must be so locked before the bottle can be charged, and which cannot be dislodged by the force of an explosion. v

To emphasize, it is an object to provide such a cage and lock therefor, and also to provide means which will insure that the bottle cannot be charged until the cage is properly locked in position. More particularly, it is necessary to open the bottles discharge valvein order to permit charging of the bottle, and it is an'object to couple the bottle valve opening mechanism with the locking mechanism for the cage in such a way that the bottle valve can only be opened for charging of the bottle when the cage is properly locked in position, and to interdict release or opening of the bottles valve until the cage is in such position.

More specificallyit is intended to support the bottle upon a bracket arm inclined upwardly and outwardly from a base, andto move'lengthwise of the bracket arm a slide to which the cage is pivotally mounted, so that it may be slid downward toward the base to cover the bottleyor outthrough a bore in the base 9 :by means ofthe wardly and upwardly to uncover the bottle. Sirnilarly the cage may be slid lengthwise when hanging down below the arm, and it is a further object to provide means which will automatically interdict the operation'of the means to release or open the bottles valve when the cage is thus hung down, so that the bottles valvemay only be opened, and the bottle recharged, when the cage is locked in proper protective position about the bottle.

It is a further object to simplify and improve the construction and arrangement of the parts of the mechanism, to improve its appearance, and the ease of its manufacture and operation.

The invention, therefore, the principles of which are disclosed in the accompanying drawing, and as will be hereinafter more particularly disclosed in this'specification, is more particularly defined, and the limits thereof pointed out, in the accompanying claims.

The invention is disclosed herein in a form which at present is the preferred form, it being understood, however, that various changes may be made in the form, character, proportioning and arrangement of parts relative to eachother without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined by the claims.

Figure l is a side elevation of the device, parts being broken away and shown in section for clearer illustration, and illustrating a bottle, partly broken away, in charging position, covered by the cage, also partly broken away. This View shows parts inthe positions they would assume as the cage reaches its final operative position, with the cage locked in such position.

Figure 2 is an enlarged elevation fromtheopposite side, illustrating the means interdicting operation of the bottles valve, due to the fact that the cage (not shown) is not in operative position. v Figure 3 is a section, substantially on the line 33 of Figure 1,, illustrating parts in the position shown in Figure l, and, Figure 4 is a similar View, showing parts in the positions they would occupy in Figure 2. g I

This invention resides primarily in the locking and releasing devices andin the mechanism for opening and closing the bottles valve. It is not necessary to describe the bottle-supporting and charging mechanism in great detail. The device is supported from a base 9 which is arranged to be secured to any suitable support, as a table or bench, and which in turn supports an'upright water supply pipe 9!], vertically adjustable set screw 9!. At its up er end the pipe 9t supports a charging valve 8, controllable by a handle 80, and terminating in a nozzle 8!. A supply pipe 92 for gas under pressure, as carbon dioxide, admits to the valve 8, preferably passing up through the base 9.

The bottle 1 is intended to be of the type now commonly used for the dispensing of such carbonated water, and upon its neck is received a closure it having a discharge spout H and an upwardly projecting stem '12 which, in part at least, receives the bottle valve operable by the lever handle 13.

Such a bottle is supported with its discharge spout H in registry with the discharge nozzle 3! of the charging valve 8, and with its stem resting within a suitable recess (see Figure 2) in the end of an anvil 6, carried upon a stem 6! guided for. vertical movement in the base 9. This anvil ii is movable vertically to press the bottle spout ll against the nozzledl to form a tight seal, and this may be accomplished by a vertically movable pin 6| received within an axial recess in the stem 653, where it engages a spring 52, the lower end of the pin 6i being engageable by a earn 63 formed upon a lever lit. The weight of the bottle is largely supported by a bracket arm 5, having lateral arms 50 near its outer end, and which at its inner end is supported by bolts 5! or other suitable means from the base 9.

The bottle is enclosed within a suitable cage 4, which cage is conveniently supported upon a slide 40 movable lengthwise of the bracket arm 5, to which slide the cage is pivoted at M. The cage fits about the bottle and the bracket arm 5 whereon the bottle rests, and the pivot Ali is provided because'it is not desirable to have the cage in bottle-covering position at all times, but rather it is preferable that the cage swing down below the bracket arm at such times as the bottles are being put in place or removed.

The operation of the device will now be understood in general. With the cage swung out of the way but with the slide lll in its lowermost position, due to gravity, a bottle in inverted position is placed upon the bracket 5, cradled between the lateral arms 50, and with the end of its stem I2 resting upon the anvil E, and with its spout H in registry with the nozzle iii. The lever 64 is now swung from its dash line position of Figure 1 to its full line position, that is, into a position where the cam 63 presses upwardly on the pin 6i and thence through the spring 62 upon the anvil 6, and this forces and holds the spout i! in close connection with the nozzle 8i. However, it is not yet possible, by manipulation of the valve 8 through the handle 80, to charge either water or the gas under pressure into the bottle l, for the valve of the bottle itself, controlled by the valve lever 73, must be opened, and to open it the valve lever '13 must be swung towards the neck of the bottle. The lever 13, then, must be swung from the full line position of Figure 2 to the dash line position thereof. 7

To effect such-movement of the valve lever I3 there is provided a pin l, carried upon a wheel H pivoted adjacent the base of the bracket arm 5 at 10. The pin l is so located that as the wheel H is rotated the pin will engage the lever arm 13 and move it, as indicated in Figure 2.

However, it must be borne in mind that it is not desirable to permit the bottle valve to be opened except when the cage 4 is in operative position enclosing the bottle I, and hence means are provided to lock the pin I, or the wheel II which carries it, in the full line position of Figure 2, where the pin cannot engage the valve lever Such a lock may be accomplished by means of a dog or lug !2, carried by the wheel ii, and a pawl pivoted upon the bracket 5 at it and having one end [4 which is spring-urged by spring it to engage the lug l2, and a second arm is which may be engaged and depressed to disengage the pawl M from the lug I2. So long as the pawl is in engagement with the lug l2 the wheel may not rotate in such a direction as to permit engagement between the pin I and the lever arm 13. An additional lug l9 may be provided behind the lug l2, as illustrated in Figure 2, as further safety precaution. Should the pawl i l fail to engage the lug l2, it can scarcely fail to engage the lug l9; and should the pawl slip from the lug I2 it will still engage the lug l9.

Since it is only desirable to permit opening of the bottle valve at such time as the cage is in its final operative position, means are provided, the position of which is controlled by the position of the cage, which actto release the wheel ii to permit operation of the valve lever 13. Thus a finger 42 is fixed to the slide 40, projectin' downwardly, and the arm l5 of the pawl l4 lies in the path of this finger 42; as the slide reaches its lowermost position, corresponding to the final operative position of the cage, the finger 12 depresses the pawl arm l5 and releases the pawl, in opposition to its spring I6, permitting rotation of the wheel H.

t is necessary to lock the cage 4 in its final operative position, and to that end a locking dog it is pivoted at 23 upon the bracket arm 5, its

opposite end 25 being spring-urged away from the bracket by a spring indicated at 26, and the locking dog M is positioned to engage a pin 44 carried by the slide 4!]. The dog and pin are shown thus engaged in Figure 1. The engagement of the pin l -l with the locking dog 24 is automatic so long as there is no obstacle interposed between them, or something holding the locking dog out of locking position. The release of the locking dog is efiected by a pin 2 carried upon the wheel i I, and so positioned with relation to the pin 1 that the locking dog 24 may only be released to permit withdrawal of the cage from about the bottle, after the pin I has been moved away from the bottle valve lever 53, and the bottles valve is therefore closed. When the valve lever '53 is in the dash line position of Figure 2, with the bottles valve open, the pin 2 is withdrawn from the locking dog 24, and the latter must be engaged with the pin to lock the slide and hence the cage in operative position.

It may be thought that the slide 40 and the cage which is pivoted to it can be locked and held when the slide is in its lowermost position but with the cage hinged and swung downwardly beneath the bracket arm 5. Such, however, is not the case, and in order to prevent this there is provided a plate 3,, which is fast to the cage 4, and which when the cage is swung downwardly on its hinge fill by gravity, is in the position shown in Figure 2, wherein it is interposed between the locking dog 25 and the pin 44. The result is that it prevents locking engagement of the dog 2 with its pin 34 on the slide, except when the cage has been swung over the bracket arm 5 and any bottle resting upon the latter. This serves a further purpose in that the slide is thereby prevented from moving to its lowermost position, and in turn the finger 42 is prevented from engaging the pawl arm l5, and the pawl is thereby prevented from unlocking the wheel II. Thus, when the cage is in its downwardly swung or inoperative position it is not even possible to engage the pin l with the valve lever arm l3 and to open the bottle valve.

Now it will be seen that the only possible sequence of events, after a bottle has been placedon the bracket arm 5 and the anvil 6 has been moved upwardly, as previously described, is to raise the slide 40 to the upper end of the bracket arm, to swing the cage 4 on its pivot 41, until the cage is in position to cover the bottle (whereupon the plate 3 has been swung into inoperative position), then to slide the slide 40 and cage 4 lengthwise over the bottle 1, whereupon the finger 42 releases the pawl l4, and coincidentally the locking dog 24 engages thepin 44 (unless the pin 2 is manually held against the arm 25), and the cage is now locked in its operative or bottle-covering position. Now the wheel ll may be rotated so that the pin I may engage the lever arm I3 and the bottle valve may be opened (which necessarily first releases the arm 25, if the pin 2 had been held thereagainst) after which, by manipulation of the charging valve lever 80, water and then carbon dioxide under pressure is charged into the bottle. The bottle having been filled and charged, it is necessary to release the locking dog 24 before the bottle can be withdrawn, and before the cage can be withdrawn from about it. In consequence it is necessary to rotate the wheel H in the reverse direction, so that the pin 2 may engage the arm 25, and this first effects release of the valve lever 73 by the pin l and closing of the bottle valve, and at about the same time it involves reengagement of the dog 52 by the pawl 14. When these events have taken place the locking dog 24 is released from its pin 44, and the slide may be moved outwardly and upwardly along the bracket arm 5. At the outer end of its movement the cage can be swung aside and downwardly, and now the bottle can be released by moving the anvil 6 downwardly, and the bottle is removed.

The sequence of events thus compelled makes thedevice foolproof. It is impossible to charge the bottle without having the cage locked in operative position about the bottle. Should the bottle burst during the charging operation the cage cannot be blown outwardly by the force of the explosion, but all the glass is contained by the cage, which may be made sufficiently long and strong to accomplish the desired end. No difficulty arises from letting the slide move towards its lower limit with the cage swung aside, for the reason that the plate 3 prevents locking engagement and thereby prevents opening of the bottle valve. The device is simple yet automatically operable only in the proper way.

What I claim as my invention is:

l. A carbonated bottle filler, comprising means to support a bottle in charging position and to charge water and gas under pressure thereinto, means to swing the valve lever of the bottle, when in charging position, to open the bottles valve, a cage guided for movement through a fixed path to cover and to uncover a bottle supported in charging position, means to lock the cage in bottle-covering position, and means releasable by movement of the locking means into cage-locked position, to interdict opening movement of the valve-opening means except when the cage is thus locked.

2. A carbonated bottle filler, comprising means to support a bottle in charging position and to charge water and gas under pressure thereinto, means to swing the valve lever of the bottle, when in charging position, to open the bottles valve, a cage guided for movement through a fixed path to cover and to uncover a bottle supported in charging position, means to lock the cage in bottle-covering position, means releasable by movement of the locking means into cage-locked position, to interdict opening movement of the valve opening means except when the cage is thus locked, and means operable only after closure of the valve to release said locking means.

3. A carbonated bottle filler, comprising means to support a bottle in charging position, and to charge water and gas under pressure thereinto, means to swing the valve lever of the bottle, when in charging position, to open the bottles valve, a cage and a slide whereon the cage is pivotally mounted, the slide being guided for movement through a fixed path, whereby the cage may cover and uncover a bottle supported in charging position, or may be swung on its pivot into an inoperative position, means to lock the cage in bottle-covering position, and means to interdict opening movement of the valve-opening means, regardless of movement of the slide, except when the cage is swung upon its pivot into bottle-covering position.

4. A carbonated bottle filler, comprising means to support a bottle in charging position, and to charge water and gas under pressure thereinto, a cage movable between an inoperative position and an operative position, wherein it covers the bottle so supported, means to lock the cage in bottle-covering position, and means controlled in accordance with the position of said locking means, to prevent charging into the bottle prior to locking the cage in bottle-covering position.

5. A carbonated bottle filler, comprising means to support a bottle in charging position, and to charge water and gas under pressure thereinto, a cage movable between an inoperative position and an operative position, wherein it covers the bottle so supported, means to lock the cage in bottle-covering position, means controlled by the position of the cage relative to the bottle to inter-dict engagement of the lock until the cage is in bottle-covering position, and means controlled in accordance with the position of the locking means, to prevent charging into the bottle until the cage is locked in bottle-covering position.

6. A carbonated bottle filler, comprising means to support a bottle in charging position,and to charge fluid under pressure thereinto while so supported, a cage movable between an inoperative position and an operative position, wherein it encloses the bottle so supported, means to interdict charging of the bottle until the cage reaches its final operative position, and means movable to positively lock the cage against movement from bottle-enclosing position by the force of explosion of a bottle, and further operable by such movement to automatically release the interdicting means.

'7. A carbonated bottle filler, comprising means to support a bottle in charging position, and to charge water and gas under pressure thereinto, a cage movable between an inoperative position and an operative position, wherein it covers the bottle so supported, means to interdict charging of the bottle when the cage is not in bottle-covering position, and means separate from but actuated by the movement of the cage into bottle-covering position, to release the said intel-diction means, whereby the bottle may be charged.

8. A carbonated bottle filler, comprising means to support a bottle in charging position, and to charge fluid under pressure thereinto while so supported, an unitary cage movable lengthwise of the bottle from an inoperative position to an operative position, and so formed and shaped that, in its operative position, it encloses the entire bottle, and means to interdict charging of the bottle until the cage reaches its final opera-v tive position.

9. A carbonated bottle filler, comprising a base, means supported therefrom to support a bottle in charging position, and to charge water and gas under pressure thereinto, a wheel rotatable upon the base, and carrying two angularly spaced pins rotatable with the wheel, the first such pin when so rotated in one direction engaging and moving the bottles valve lever to open position, a cage and a cage-supporting element whereon the cage is movable between a position in readiness to cover a bottle and an inoperative position, means carried by the base and guiding said element, and the cage when the latter is in posi tion of readiness, into and from bottle-covering position, a lug carried by the wheel and a dog carried by the base, and normally engaging the lug to interdict rotation of the wheel in a direction to open the bottles valve, means movable with the cage-supporting element and positioned to release said dog when the cage reaches bottle-covering position, a locking dog spring-urged to engage and lock the cage-supporting element, when the cage reaches bottle-covering position, to retain the cage in such position, the second pin, however, being positioned and organized to engage and hold the locking dog in unlocked position when the first dog is engaged with the lug, and being released by movement of the wheel in a direction to open the bottles valve, and means carried by and movable with the cage, in position to prevent engagement of the dog-releasing means with the dog except when the cage is in bottle-covering position.

10. A carbonated bottle filler, comprising means to support a bottle in charging position, means to place the bottle, so supported, in readiness to receive a charge, means to charge fluid under pressure thereinto while so supported and in readiness, an unitary cage movable lengthwise of the bottle from an inoperative position to a position enclosing a bottle so supported, and means operable by the action of placing the bottle in readiness for charging to lock the cage against movement from bottle-enclosing position.

11. A carbonated bottle filler, comprising means to support a bottle in charging position, means to place a bottle, so supported, in readiness to receive a charge, means to charge fluid under pressure thereinto while so supported in readiness, a

cage movable from an inoperative position to a position enclosing a bottle so supported, and means operable automatically by the action of placing of the bottle in readiness for charging to lock the cage against movement from bottleenclosing position.

12. A carbonated bottle filler, comprising means to support a bottle in charging position, a cage movable from an inoperative position to a position enclosing a bottle so supported, a common means to lock the cage against movement from bottle-enclosing position and to place the bottle in readiness for charging, and means to charge fluid under pressure into such bottle.

13. A carbonated bottle filler, comprising means to support a bottle in charging position, a cage movable from an inoperative position to a position enclosing a bottle so supported, means to lock the cage against movement from bottle-enclosing position, means to place the bottle in readiness for charging, means operatively connecting the two last-named means for simultaneous operation, whereby the bottle may not be placed in readiness for charging without thus locking the cage, and means to charge fluid under pressure into such bottle.

14. A carbonated bottle filler, comprising means to support a bottle in charging position, a cage movable from an inoperative position to a position enclosing a bottle so supported, means to charge fluid under pressure into such bottle, means to lock the cage against movement from bottle-enclosing position, and means, releasable by the locking of the cage, to interdict charging into the bottle prior to such locking.

ROBERT J. HELBERG. 

